Archive for the 'Pure Politics' Category
Monday, February 4th, 2008
by Bill Levinson
What you are thunders so loudly that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Much has been made by the National Jewish Democratic Council about Barack Hussein Obama’s purported support for Israel. Obama’s actions, however, thunder so loudly that we cannot hear his lip service to Israel’s basic security and right to exist. After soliciting the support of the prominent racist and anti-Semite Al Sharpton, Barack Obama just accepted the endorsement of MoveOn.org. Let’s see what this official MoveOn.org bulletin has to say about Israel and the Palestinians.
MoveOn Bulletin
Friday, June 20, 2003
Noah T. Winer, Editor
noah.winer “at” moveon.org
NTRODUCTION: WHERE DOES THE ROAD MAP LEAD?
In July, 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak broke off talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat at the Camp David summit hosted by U.S. President Bill Clinton. That September, Ariel Sharon, chairman of the Likud party, made a provocative visit to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Control over this holy site for both Muslims and Jews is contested by Palestinians and Israelis. The visit implied Israeli sovereignty over all Jerusalem, the eastern portion of which is considered occupied territory by the international community. So began the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising.
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Posted in Israel, Palestinians, Peace Process, Elections, Pure Politics | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2008
By Andrew Whitehead
On 21 January, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington, D.C. based Islamist terrorist supporting front group, issued an “Action Alert” calling on readers to contact American political leaders in order to pressure Israel to lift a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
The “humanitarian crisis” developed when Israel reduced deliveries of fuel, food, and medicines in response to rocket attacks by members of the Hamas terrorist group. Hamas terrorists have been firing rockets into Southern Israel since taking power by force in June.
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Posted in Israel, Islam, Palestinians, Anti-Semitism, Pure Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
By Andrew L. Jaffee
The worst economic/political experiment in human history — communism and Nazism (National Socialist German Workers Party) — was great at killing millions of poor souls. Now the Chinese version of the über-nanny-state wishes to extend its control to… life after death:
A SENIOR Tibetan lama and Chinese government advisers have defended contentious rules banning reincarnations of “living Buddhas” without approval.
The rules are apparently aimed at empowering China to name the next Dalai Lama when the 14th and current Dalai Lama dies.
Last July, China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs issued regulations banning reincarnations of living Buddhas, or holy monks, who failed to seek government approval, ostensibly to manipulate the centuries-old practice and legitimise future appointments by the atheist Communist Party. …
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Posted in China, Communism / Socialism, Pure Politics, Human Rights | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
By Barry Rubin
T.S. Elliot wrote memorably in “The Hollow Men”: Between the idea/And the reality/Between the motion/And the act/Falls the Shadow
In the case of the peace process and all the great ideas for fixing everything in Arab-Israel relations, the Shadow has been Palestinian leaders’ unwillingness–and now also inability–to make a compromise agreement ending the conflict.
Close examination of the movement’s ideology, organization, and structure shows why this is true. Exactly forty years ago, in 1968, Yasir Arafat and Fatah took over. That same year he laid down two principles dominating the movement ever since.
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Posted in Israel, Palestinians, Peace Process, Terrorist Groups, Pure Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
By Barry Rubin
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of articles have been written on President George Bush’s visit to the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. And not a single one that I’ve seen has mentioned the ridiculously obvious point that goes so far in explaining everything.
To paraphrase the nursery rhyme about circling endlessly, Bush is merely taking us around the mulberry bush once more. Namely, this is an exact replay of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Eight years ago, in his last twelve months in office, Clinton, too, decided that the conflict must be resolved right away. Result: total, humiliating failure and a five-year-long bloody Palestinian war on Israel.
As if this were not enough, whether or not even more violence will follow, Bush, through no fault of his own, is in a far worse position to play this game than was his predecessor.
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Posted in Israel, United States, Palestinians, Peace Process, Pure Politics | No Comments »
Monday, January 14th, 2008
by Daniel Pipes*
The Palestinian “right of return” entered the lexicon of American policymakers in December 2006, when the Iraq Study Group Report urged the U.S. government to support Israel-Palestinian negotiations that addresses what it termed a “key final status issue.” That recommendation came as a mild shock, given that the “right of return” to Israel is transparently a code phrase to overwhelm Israel demographically, thereby undoing Zionism and the Jewish state, and so never before a goal of official Washington.
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Posted in Israel, Palestinians, Peace Process, Pure Politics | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
By Barry Rubin
What should President George W. Bush, currently visiting the Middle East, expect to achieve during his last year in office, even as the American people begin to choose his successor?
The answer could not possibly objectively clearer and subjectively more obscure. The gap between the real Middle East and how it is perceived by all too many people in Washington and in the academic-journalistic elite is far too wide.
Three quick examples are useful to underline this point. First, the Annapolis summit was widely hailed throughout America and the West as a big success, even by Bush’s biggest enemies. (That means, of course, it achieved the main goal, which was not primarily about the Middle East itself.) In the region, however, less than one-fifth of Israelis and Palestinians thought it had done any good. People in the region knew better.
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Posted in Israel, Arab/Muslim World, Palestinians, Peace Process, Pure Politics, Foreign Policy | No Comments »
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
The following is the personal opinion of Andrew Whitehead, founder of Anti-CAIR.
On 5 December, JihadWatch posted an article referring to an online posting made by IslamOnline.
As I do not speak/read Arabic, I am relying on the translation provided by JihadWatch.
According to JihadWatch’s translation, IslamOnline has implied that Anti-CAIR is engaged in activities on behalf of Michael Savage in his lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
While Anti-CAIR supports Savage’s free speech rights, we are not spearheading any coalition nor organizing opposition to CAIR’s newest group, “Hate Hurts America” (HHA).
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Posted in Islam, Media/Blogsphere, Pure Politics | No Comments »
Friday, December 7th, 2007
By Andrew L. Jaffee
I believe that we are experiencing global warming. It is an issue that both the developing and developed worlds need to address right now. But what I’ve seen over the last week is farcical: 1) a UN “climate change” conference whose participants pumped an “equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, like Marseilles, France, would emit in a day” into our atmosphere; 2) a new Australian Labor leader whose “negotiating stance” on the Kyoto Protocol is the same as President Bush’s; and 3) the fact that China and India, “among the biggest contributors to the problem, both say they will not sign any climate change treaty that would slow the pace of their development.” Here are the goodies (insert your own, canned laugh-track):
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Posted in Pure Politics, Environment | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
by M. Zuhdi Jasser*
On November 20, 2006, airline officials in Minneapolis removed six imams from U.S. Airways flight 300 to Phoenix after their behavior raised the suspicion of fellow travelers.[1] The imams decried the incident as racist and evidence of discrimination. On March 12, 2007, they filed suit against the airline, airport, and fellow passengers. Some of the imams’ claims are exaggerated; many are false. In reality, the incident was a tactical move to support the imams’ claim to leadership over the American Muslim community. Indeed, the “flying imams” case, Ahmed Shqeirat et al. vs. U.S. Airways,[2] appears to mark just the latest front in the war between Islamists and mainstream, pluralistic American Muslims.
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Posted in Islam, Pure Politics, Law | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
by Michael Rubin*
Congressional Democrats have seized upon the latest National Intelligence Estimate - which says Iran stopped pursuing nuclear weapons in 2003 - with great relish. They suggest it proves that not only did the Bush administration exaggerate the threat of a nuclear Iran, but that the White House, in its drive for hard-line sanctions backed by military force, has been far too skeptical of diplomacy.
In a statement yesterday, Sen.Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chastised President Bush, saying his “actions are doubly dangerous because they undercut the cooperation we need from other countries for dealing with the real problems Iran continues to pose.”
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Posted in Iran, Pure Politics, WMD | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
By Andrew Whitehead
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has petitioned a court to have the label of “un-indicted co-conspirator” removed. CAIR, among many other Islamist groups, was labeled an un-indicted co-conspirator in the recent Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial held in Texas.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20071121/NATION/111210046/1002
CAIR wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers asking for help in pressuring the Justice Department to remove the designation. CAIR is also asking why the Justice Department publicly named all 306 co-conspirators in the HLF indictment.
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Posted in Islam, Terrorist Groups, Pure Politics, Law | No Comments »
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
by Daniel Pipes*
The Bush administration’s counterterrorism policies appear tough, but inside the courtroom, they evaporate, consistently favoring not American terror victims, but foreign terrorists.
Consider a civil lawsuit arising from a September 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed credit for five dead and 192 wounded, including several Americans. On the grounds that the Islamic Republic of Iran had financed Hamas, five injured Americans students sued it for damages.
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Posted in War Against Islamo-fascism, Pure Politics | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
From the GOP entitled, “What’s Hillary Hiding?” Yes, partisan, but a good question:
In 2004, Hillary claimed that all of the records at the Clinton Library would be opened. She said on CNN’s Larry King Live, “That’s one of the things the library really stands for. It physically stands for openness with all the glass and the light. But he wants it to be a place where people come and really study. And everything’s going to be available.”
Nearly three years after the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library and the ensuing Freedom of Information Act Requests, less than half of one percent of the library’s documents are open for review.
ABC News reported on November 6, 2007 that another Arkansas library containing documents related to Clinton won’t be available until after the 2008 election.
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Posted in Elections, Pure Politics | No Comments »
Monday, November 12th, 2007
By Andrew L. Jaffee
For years, Hillary Clinton has given me that not-so-warm-and-fuzzy Big Sister (1984) feeling. Friday’s town hall meeting in Iowa only has confirmed my intuition:
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s campaign admitted Friday that it planted a global warming question in Newton, Iowa, Tuesday during a town hall meeting to discuss clean energy.
Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elliethee admitted that the campaign had planted the question and said it would not happen again.
“On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Senator Clinton’s energy plan at a forum,” Elliethee said. …
The campaign’s admission that it planted the question may be another blow to the New York senator’s image as a trustworthy politician. …
“It’s what the Clinton campaign calls the politics of planting.”
Another step down that slippery slope… What kind of “planting” would we see if Hillary were president? What you sow, so shall you reap…
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Posted in Elections, Pure Politics | No Comments »